


The Ties That Bind

by rixxy-wrights (fitnessfaggot)



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Angst, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Explicit Sexual Content, F/F, Friends to Enemies, Immediately Post Season 1, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Loooots of Angst, Slow Burn, catra IS a furry you cowards
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-09-30 18:00:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17228606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fitnessfaggot/pseuds/rixxy-wrights
Summary: “I want you,” Hordak interrupted, “to join the Rebellion.”Uh. What?Catra scoffed.“Oh, yeah, right, except the second I step foot in Bright Moon, someone’s going to blow me up with magic and rainbows. I wouldn’t exactly say I have a low profile anymore, how do you expect me to get near the princesses or any of their plans?” she asked.“That is for you to figure out, Lieutenant. But I expect you back here with a full report in two weeks. If you cannot return to me in the time frame I’ve given you, don’t bother returning at all. This is your chance at redemption, Catra, do not let it slip away,” Hordak ordered, his eyes deadly serious.“You are dismissed.”Or: How Catra finds herself rotting in a Bright Moon dungeon.





	1. Preface

******OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPTION OF THE ROYAL JUDGMENT OF HORDE LIEUTENANT CATRA******

`TWENTY-FOURTH DAY of the NINTH ETHERIAN MOON CYCLE`

`HER HONORABLE MAJESTY QUEEN ANGELLA of BRIGHT MOON PRESIDING`

`CAPTAIN NOIRA as ACTING BAILIFF`

``

`CPT. NOIRA: Ladies and gentlemen of the royal court, please rise for Her Honorable Majesty, Queen Angella. `

` _All rise._ `

`CPT. NOIRA: Today’s court proceedings will result in the verdict and judgment of Horde Lieutenant Catra, who has been charged with multiple counts of assault, attempted murder, and murder in the first degree. Her Honorable Majesty is now presiding.`

`QUEEN ANGELLA: Thank you, Captain. Please be seated.`

` _All are seated._ `

`QUEEN ANGELLA: Defendant, for the record, please state your full name.`

`LT. CATRA: Catra.`

`QUEEN ANGELLA: Your full title, for the record, _please_.`

`LT. CATRA: Horde Lieutenant Catra.`

`QUEEN ANGELLA: Thank you. Lieutenant Catra, for all crimes previously named, you have already plead guilty. The past several weeks spent in interrogation and court have been to seek out a punishment worthy of these innumerable transgressions. The friends and family of those you have wronged are looking to this court today for justice, and that is exactly what I intend to deliver. You face judgment today not only for your own actions, but on behalf of Hordak and the entire Intergalactic Horde Empire. `

`SHE-RA: Angella, wait!`

`QUEEN ANGELLA: Silence! This court will maintain order. Lieutenant Catra, before you receive your judgment, do you have any final words for the record?`

`LT. CATRA: Fuck you.`

`QUEEN ANGELLA: Very well. Lieutenant Catra, for the crimes committed by you and by the Evil Horde, you have been found guilty on all charges. In accordance with the legal traditions of the Kingdom of Bright Moon, I must sentence you to death. Your punishment shall be carried out tomorrow at dawn. Court dismissed.`

******END OF OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT******


	2. The Mission

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> howdy!! it's been literal years since i've written fanfic, especially a multi-chaptered fic with smut, so please bear with me while i get my feet wet again. some important things to note going forward with this fic:
> 
> 1) catra has fur all over you guys just need to accept it  
> 2) there will be some mentioned abuse a la shadow weaver  
> 3) this is a slow burn catradora fic primarily sooooo smut will come later ;) also there's plentiful adult language
> 
> catch me on tumblr (hey-its-your-girl-ratbaby(.)tumblr(.)com is my main, i may make another one solely for my writing) and please leave a kudos/bookmark/comment, it would mean a ton! i'm hoping to update this once a week, but it'll probably be less than that once classes start again. thanks for reading y'all!

Catra was going to snap.

“How _fucking_ stupid does an _entire_ goddamn army have to be to lose to a few extra-sparkly teenagers, a ten-year-old, and a _horse_?! Where the fuck was the support battalion, or-or the snipers, or anyone that had two brain cells to kiss together? I guess I must’ve missed the Force Captain orientation meeting where they taught you how to run and hide like stupid, brainless cadets!”

Correction: Catra had already snapped.

Chairs, tables, and anything else not bolted to the floors or the walls lay scattered around the briefing room as Catra raged for the second straight hour upon her arrival back to the Fright Zone, a shamed Horde army in tow. While the trek back from Bright Moon had been long and quiet, defeat weighing on everyone’s minds, the moment Catra and Scorpia returned to their quarters where Entrapta was waiting, the slimmer Force Captain let loose her rage. 

“See, this is why I like Catra so much,” Scorpia commented to an uneasy Entrapta, both a very respectable distance away from the destruction being reigned down upon the furniture, “she’s just so creative, even when she’s insulting people!”

Catra, unaware and uncaring of the two princesses’ presences, continued, launching a broken table leg at the wall.

“Stupid princesses, stupid Alliance, stupid _fucking She-Ra!_ ”

And there it was. The root of it all. She-Ra.

No. Adora.

Her oldest friend, and oldest rival. What pissed her off the most was that Catra _had_ her, had all of Bright Moon right there in her clawed grasp. But as was typical, Adora refused to be outshone, even if it meant resorting to cheap tactics like restoring balance to the world, or whatever.

Despite the screaming pain up and down her body that might indicate otherwise, Catra felt very confident that Adora walked away from their fight worse off than she had. After Catra had allowed herself to let go of her attachment to Adora, she held back nothing in their one-on-one, letting all of her resentment and frustrations out on the girl she once would have held herself back for. 

This brought her some satisfaction, but it wasn’t enough to quell her unbridled fury at having to report yet _another_ failure to Hordak as a result of Adora and her friends’ meddling.

Speaking of.

As Catra paced to the other side of the room, tail lashing, the monitors that were present in most briefing rooms in the Fright Zone flickered to life. Hordak’s typically displeased mug flashed across each screen, immediately replacing Catra’s anger with fear. She stopped her pacing and bowed, as did Scorpia and Entrapta.

“Force Captain Catra,” he began, his blood-red eyes boring down on the three Horde officers.

“Lord Hordak, I–”

“Once you have cleaned up your mess in the briefing room, report to my chambers. We need to discuss your invasion on Bright Moon. Bring Scorpia and Entrapta along with you.”

“Ah, yes–” before she could even finish, the transmission crackled to black. Uncertainty sent another rush of fear through her, causing the fur along her back to stand on end. Tail dropping to the floor, Catra turned to the other two women in the room, hoping to find any sort of comfort in their body language. They looked confused, but mostly terrified. Wonderful.

“Well hey,” Scorpia offered, a nervous smile forcing itself on her face, “the good news is I think you only snapped one of the brooms in half?”

Catra pinched the bridge of her nose with a clawed hand.

This was going to suck.

* * *

“Very well, Force Captain Catra. You will have other chances to prove your worth to me, as my second-in-command.”

Alright, maybe it didn’t suck _so_ much.

Catra’s heart was thumping with excitement and nerves, but her exterior retained its usual smugness as she beamed at her two co-workers, ears twitching and tail lashing. Second-in-command? To Hordak? Adora could never even dream of it.

 _Wow I need to stop thinking about her every time I do something right. Thanks, Shadow Weaver._ Catra winced.

“Entrapta, Scorpia, you are dismissed. I would like a word with my Lieutenant in private,” Hordak ordered, the sound of grinding metal reverberating throughout the chamber as he stood from his throne. The two princesses wordlessly bowed after exchanging a look, retreating from the room with an eager haste. Once Catra was sure they were alone, she turned to face Hordak.

“So uhh, what’s up, boss?” she quipped, feigning nonchalance as was her style. He did not seem to be giving any attention to her, however.

In silence, the cyborg had moved around to a monitor that hid behind his throne, a small clacking filling the stillness in the room as Hordak’s claws struck a keyboard. In a few seconds, a bright green holograph sprung before Catra’s eyes, seeming to display the entire planet in great detail.

“Come here.”

At Hordak’s invitation, Catra stepped forward onto the same platform as her superior, keeping a steady gaze on his expression to try and read for even the smallest bit of malcontent. Hordak must have sensed her uncertainty, because he seemed to soften for a moment and placed a heavy, clawed hand on her shoulder. She was unused to physical contact, at least the kind that didn’t result in injury (or affection, in Adora’s case, _but she definitely wasn’t going to think about that_ ) but she settled with it once she recognized it wasn’t a threat.

“Catra, you have shown great promise not only to me, but to the entirety of the Horde Empire. With you acting beside me as my right hand, I believe that all of this,” he gestured to the hologram, “can be ours. But I need you to understand something. Failure is no longer an option. We cannot afford to expend resources for an entire army only to come back empty-handed. You must step up to your rank, Lieutenant. You cannot disappoint me the way your predecessor did.”

“I understand, Lord Hordak,” Catra said solemnly, casting her eyes downward at the chastisement. It was certainly gentler than any discipline Shadow Weaver had ever enforced, but she still felt hot with embarrassment at being reminded of her failure. Failure, once again, caused by Adora.

“Good. Now is your chance to make it up to me.”

Before she could ask for clarification, Hordak dropped his hand from her shoulder, instead using it to zoom in on the portion of the hologram where the Whispering Woods lay, now completely dormant. 

“You mentioned that the Whispering Woods were still in ruins?” he asked.

“Yes, thankfully. Somehow even all the magic the princesses had together wasn’t enough to completely fix the Woods. Entrapta thinks there’s only about a month until it regrows, though, at least as long as all of the princesses stay in harmony,” she explained, recounting what the engineer had mentioned to her when she _politely_ demanded a battle status report upon returning home.

“Then we must act quickly to dismantle the Alliance before we launch our final attack on Bright Moon.”

“So what do you want me to do? Train up some fresh cadets, order some new tan-”

“I want you,” Hordak interrupted, “to join the Rebellion.”

Uh.

What?

Catra blinked at her superior for a moment before forcing a laugh. He had to be joking, right?

“Oh, man, that was a good one Hordak. I gotta be honest I didn’t peg you as the type to really have a sense of humor, but you always managed to...uh…” Catra trailed off as Hordak caught her gaze, eyes narrowing in disapproval. Oh, so he _was_ serious.

“Join the Rebellion? No offense, Lord Hordak, but what exactly are you talking about?” Catra asked, embarrassed that her playful jab didn’t quite land. Hordak once again zoomed out on the hologram, showing the entire planet. Tapping a key, half of the green hologram turned a deep blood red, marking the areas where the Horde had a tight grasp on the land. Bright Moon stood out in harsh green.

“We are on the precipice of conquering every corner of Etheria. Bright Moon is the last true stronghold of the Rebellion. We must rely on careful calculation, not brute force. Every moment we stand here and deliberate, the Rebellion is able to defend, and perhaps, plan a counterstrike. I need you on the inside, to tear things apart in these precious moments where Bright Moon lies defenseless.”

Catra scoffed.

“Oh, yeah, right, except the second I step foot in Bright Moon, someone’s going to blow me up with magic and rainbows. I wouldn’t exactly say I have a low profile anymore, how do you expect me to get near the princesses or any of their plans?” she asked, hoping she wasn’t overstepping with her attitude. 

“That is for you to figure out, Lieutenant. But I expect you back here with a full report in two weeks. You will depart at sunrise,” he said, tapping a few more keys so that the hologram shut off completely.

“Two _weeks?!_ ” Catra felt an immense pressure weigh on her. While she could think of quite a few ways to dismantle Bright Moon on her own, none of them could be expedited to only two weeks.

“Yes. The Whispering Woods will be recovered in a month, and we have no time to waste. If you cannot return to me in the time frame I’ve given you, don’t bother returning at all. This is your chance at redemption, Catra, do not let it slip away,” Hordak ordered, his eyes deadly serious.

“You are dismissed.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy new year, babes

**Author's Note:**

> *comes out from behind door without a shirt or pants, holding my phone up to the mirror* hi welcome to my fanfiction


End file.
